William Brookfield

BAD FAITH, SAYS PLATT.

WITNESSES TO SHOW THE MAYOR BROKE HIS WORD.

Mr. Platt's Friends Say the Republican Leader Had Assurances that Col. Fred Grant Would Get the Public Works Commissionership -The Mayor's Ante-Election Pledges of Loyalty to Platt as Told by the Adherents of the Latter.

Ex-Senator Platt, the Republican leader of the state, returned from Washington late yesterday afternoon. On his way over the river to the Fifth Avenue Hotel he got the evening newspapers and learned, to his unqualified astonishment, that Mayor Strong had appointed William Brookfield Commissioner of Public Works. Mr. Platt left for Washington at noon on Tuesday, fully convinced that the mayor was to give the place to Colonel Frederick D. Grant.

On Mr. Platt's arrival at his hotel last evening he found a number of Republican local leaders awaiting him. Later the corridors of the hotel were thronged as they haven't been since election night. Mr. Brookfield was present for a short time with Job Hedges, Mayor Strong's private secretary. Mr. Brookfield smilingly said he had not come to call on Mr. Platt. He and Mr. Hedges had a short private talk and then left. Mr. Platt, after talking upstairs with his friends in the Republican county committee, had a short chat with the Sun reporter. The Tioga Chieftain was as calm as you please, and he said that he had decided not to speak at the moment to any extent concerning Mayor Strong's appointment of Mr. Brookfield.

"There is no harm in stating, though" he added, "that Mr. Strong has not kept faith with me or my friends. Of that I am quite sure,"

Further then that Mr. Platt would not go just at the moment, but an early interview between him and the Mayor will not be surprising. The history of the movement which made Colonel Strong the candidate for mayor was gone over by the Republicans. They declared that they had the evidence to substantiate every word they uttered. According to this history Colonel Strong desired last fall above all things to be the candidate of the Republican party for Mayor. He consulted with James Phillips, jr., who was then owner of the Press, and the assertion is made that Colonel Strong said to Mr. Phillips at the time:

"I cannot get this nomination unless Mr. Platt is with me."

Thereupon, so the story goes, Mr. Phillips posted down to Mr. Platt's office in lower Broadway and informed him of Mr. Strong's desire. Pr. Platt, it was related, directed Mr. Phillips to consult with ex-judge Jacob M. Patterson and Police Commissioner Charles H. Murray. Mr. Phillips, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Murray, it was asserted, then had several interviews with Mayor Strong in the Central National Bank and elsewhere, and it was emphatically said last night that Mr. Strong in those interviews made the positive assertion that if he got the nomination and was elected he would see to it that Mr. Platt and his friends had the bulk of the recognition during his administration. The politicians declared that these statements concerning Mr. Strong's alleged promises are not hearsay or gossip, but that there is plenty of evidence to substantiate Mayor Strong's alleged ante-election promises, and that Mr. Phillips, Mayor Strong's personal friend, has frequently attested over his own signature everything that Mr. Strong informed Mr. Patterson and Mr. Murray.

With these arrangements thoroughly understood Mr. Strong was nominated, and the Republican county committee of seventy and others clamored for a power of removal bull to be given to Mayor Strong. Mr. Platt and his friends were opposed to such a bill, believing that in the end it would come home to plague them. But, bowing to the clampr, a power of removal bill was prepared, which also extended to John Jeroloman, president of the Board of Aldermen, the power of removal in case anything happened to Mayor Strong. The politicians go on to say that Mr. Strong sent for Mr. Phillips and told him that he did not wish Mr. Jeroloman to have the power of removal. Mr. Strong requested Mr. Phillips, it is declared, to see Mr. Platt and tell him of his (Mayor Strong's) objection to this feature of the bill. Mr. Phillips posted down to Mr. Platt, whereupon Mr. Platt called up Senator Lexow on the long distance telephone at Albany and told him of the Mayor's wishes. Mr. Platt, it is reported, told Mr. Phillips on that visit:

"Tell Mayor Strong that so far as I am able he shall have everything possible as he wishes."

Then came Lexow's famous summersault and Jeroloman's chagrin. With the power of removal bill as Mayor Strong desired it is an assured fact, Mr. Phillips, at Mayor Strong's request, invited Mr. Platt to meet the Mayor at the latter's home, 12 West Fifty-Seventh street. This meeting occurred a week ago last Monday night, and Mr. Platt and the Mayor were together for nearly three hours. On that visit, the history continues, Mayor Strong discussed with Mr. Platt the appointments he was to make under the power of removal bill. Mr. Platt, it is said, and Mayor Strong will know whether this is true or not, suggested the name of Colonel Frederick Grant for Commissioner of Public Works, and said that he had nothing further to ask. Mr. Platt pointed out to the Mayor that Grant was not a factional man and that his appointment would please Republicans, and that it would not in any way add to the friction in the Republican county committee.

Mr. Platt told his friends last night that, while Mayor Strong did not exactly promise to appoint Colonel Grant, he left the Mayor with the full assurances that his suggestion would be heeded, and, believing in the Mayor's expressions, Mr. Platt paid no attention to the gossip about Mr. Brookfield's appointment until Monday last. The talk about Mr. Brookfield then became so pronounced that Mr. Platt sent for Mr. Phillips and requested him to ask Mayor Strong if there was anything in it. Mr. Phillips saw Mayor Strong, and, returning to Mr. Platt, it was declared, gave him this answer:

"Mayor Strong says there is nothing whatever in the talk about his appointing Mr. Brookfield. He says it is rubbish. He says he has not even considered Mr. Brookfield's name."

Mr. Platt and his friends were serene until Tuesday morning, when the talk about Mr. Brookfield became even more marked. Mr. Platt was compelled to take the noon train to Washington, but before leaving he received assurances, it was asserted, that Mayor Strong still insisted that there was no truth in the Brookfield story. Mr. Platt departed for Washington, and ex-judge Patterson at the Fifth Avenue Hotel last night contributed to this little history, when he told Mr. Platt:

"On Tuesday morning I heard the Mayor was to appoint Mr. Brookfield, and I called on him. He told me that he had not even considered Mr. Brookfield's name. Why, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Patterson says he said, 'I have just heard positively that you have offered the place to Mr. Brookfield.' The Mayor then threw up his hands and admitted the truth."

There is undoubtedly another side to this story, which Mayor Strong may be expected to give to-day.

Mayor Strong had a friend at the hotel last night, who said:

"This trouble comes from turning down Mr. Brookfield as president of the Republican county committee. Before that was done the Mayor sent for Mr. Patterson and others and said that he wished to speak to them, not as Mayor, but as a Republican, and he wished them to throw their majority vote for Mr. Brookfield for president of the committee. He warned them that, while they had the power to defeat Mr. Brookfield, it would be unwise to use it, as it would only, as the Mayor said, "martyrize Brookfield."

Republicans at the hotel, in discussing the patronage at Mr. Brookfield's command, did not seem to think that he would use it to disrupt the county organization, but that he would "divvy up." There were others, though, who did not accept this statement. They believed that the Brookfield appointment was a direct smash at Mr. Platt and the county organization as at present controlled. There was a whisper from a good source that Mr. Platt and his friends in the organization can now have anything the choose from Mayor Strong, and there were ironical comments over this.